


Shopping Too Late

by thatcrazywriterley



Series: The Too Late Tales [14]
Category: AEW, All Elite Wrestling, Being The Elite (Web Series), Professional Wrestling, Young Bucks-Fandom
Genre: But For All The Right Reasons, Matt and Nick can't talk to each other, Multi, Polyamory, They do some stupid stuff, brothers share a wife, polyamorous, the kids want a pet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-02-23 11:48:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23711023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatcrazywriterley/pseuds/thatcrazywriterley
Summary: It's time for a family pet, but the Jackson family can't agree.
Relationships: Matt Jackson/Reader, Matt Jackson/Reader/Nick Jackson, Nick Jackson/Reader
Series: The Too Late Tales [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1695274
Kudos: 1





	Shopping Too Late

( _GIF owned by kelofthesea and posted by mitchtheficus on Tumblr)_

“No,” I said looking back at my daughters, both of whom were sitting at the kitchen counter doing their homework. Mattie was working on adding and subtracting. Nicole was tracing her letters. “We agreed on a puppy. Not a kitten, not a hamster. A puppy.”

“But, Mama, it’s not fair,” Mattie whined. “ _I_ want the hamster. Why does Nikki get what she wants?”

I sighed put down the knife I was using to cut up vegetables for dinner. “It isn’t about Nikki getting what she wants, Mattie. The puppy is for us as a family. A hamster is a one person pet.”

My eldest slammed her pencil down on the counter and leaned back, pouting. “I don’t want a stupid dog. I _hate_ dogs.”

“No, you don’t,” I sighed. “You’re just disappointed, and that’s okay. I promise you’ll love the puppy when he gets here.”

“I don’t care,” Mattie spat, jumping down from her chair and stomping down the hallway to her bedroom.

A headache started behind my eyes. I washed my hands and slipped into the living room to check on the boys. Lee—now two—was asleep on the sofa with one of fan-made stuff dolls Nick and Matt had gotten over the years. Our newest addition, six-month-old Ronjon—who we called RJ—was watching the mobile in his swing. He grinned when I came near, his grey eyes lighting up. I leaned over and pressed a kiss to his sandy brown hair. As I straightened up, I heard the garage door slide up and then rattle back down a moment later. I massaged the ache in my temple as I went to the door.

It was Nick. The trunk of the car was open, and I could see him moving some things around. I opened the passenger door and immediately heard the faint yipping from a box in the seat. Pushing aside the flap, I saw a mass of black and grey and white fuzz. The dog—definitely not the puppy I’d been expecting—hopped up onto his hind legs and watched me with ice blue eyes.

I reached out and scratched behind his ears. “What is he? How _old_ is he?”

Nick’s head popped around the side of the car. “They’re pretty sure he’s part husky and part corgi, but there’s definitely something else in there. And, like… two they think?” He came toward me, a grin on his face as he reached down and scratched the dog roughly under the chin. “I know we talked about puppy at the shop, but I went by the rescue place first and this little guy caught my eye. I thought the kids would love him.”

I let my head fall against Nick’s shoulder as I sighed. “Mattie’s mad about the dog. She still thinks that we’re only getting the dog because Nikki wanted it. She stormed into her room.”

He sighed, looking suddenly sheepish. “Don’t kill me, okay?”

“What did you do, Nick?”

Without a word, he turned and went back to the trunk. When he returned, he had a small cage in his hands. It was filled with curling wood strips on the bottom. There was a plastic dome nestled into the strips and a metal wheel attached to the side next to a water dispenser.

“She was so upset, and I think it’d be good for her. Some responsibility, you know? And something that’s hers,” he said, his blue eyes wide as he tried desperately to convince me. I felt the scowl slip onto my face. I saw the moment he realized this wasn’t going to be as easy as him grinning and batting his long eyelashes to get me to cave in.

“Take it back,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “We talked about this, Nick. We wanted a _family_ pet.”

He leaned against the side of his car and sighed. “We’ve got one,” he pleaded. “Please, Y/N. Let her have this. It’ll make her happy. She needs something to be happy about.”

I lifted a brow. “What do you mean? Nick, what’s wrong?”

Nick stepped past me into the house, looking around to make sure that Lee, Nikki, and RJ were okay. Then he sat down on the threshold, the cage between his feet. The dog hopped out onto the floor and sniffed the hamster for a moment, then circled and plopped on top of my feet. He took a deep breath and scrubbed his face with his hands, wedding band glinting in the fluorescent light.

“When Matt and I picked her up from school yesterday, she got in the car and started crying. Her teacher said she’d been having a hard time with some of the other kids.” He sighed, took off his ball cap, and folded the brim nervously in his hands. “She just started bawling. The other kids have been teasing her because she’s got a mom and two dads.”

I sank down onto the passenger seat of the car. “Lots of kids have a mom and two dads—a dad and a step-dad. Why are they teasing her?” Something raged in my chest. How could anyone hurt my perfect, sweet little girl?

“We’re on TV, Y/N. People know who we are. They know Matt and I are brothers. I’d even bet some of the kids who are teasing her are fans.” The pain that splashed over his face made me want to break down. Mattie was his love. He’d die for her, kill for her. I could only imagine how he felt.

It was quiet for a while. Then I stood and looked over at the hamster rutting through the bedding in its cage. “Give it to her,” I said at last.

Before he could respond, the garage rumbled open again and Matt’s car slipped in between mine and Nick’s. When he came into view, he stopped, his jaw dropping as he saw the cage at his brother’s feet. _My_ jaw dropped when I saw the _second_ cage in his hands.

“What the hell, Nick? We talked about this,” Matt said.

“That we were getting her a hamster,” Nick replied, gesturing at the cage on the floor. “I got her the hamster.”

Matt swore. “We said _I_ was going to get the hamster and _you_ were going to get the dog.”

“We’ll have to take one of them back.”

I sighed and put my head in my hands for a moment. If I wasn’t so heartbroken for our baby girl, I would’ve been angry at them for going behind my back to do something like this. As it was, I couldn’t even muster up frustration that they failed so miserably at communicating with each other. Instead, all I could do was laugh at the absurdity of my husbands and how much I loved them. Even when they were the worst kind of idiots.

“Oh, you’re not taking either one of them back,” I said at last, grinning. “Let her have them. She’s got two dads that love her. Let her have two fucking hamsters.”

***

Matt took the hamsters and the dog to his house. He used an old baby gate to block the dog in the kitchen while we had dinner.

We sat around the table, Matt, Nick, and I trying to keep straight faces about the surprises waiting next door. Matt helped Nicole with her spaghetti. Nick had Lee on his knee feeding him small bites of meatballs and pasta sauce. Mattie pushed her food around her plate looking surly the whole time. And RJ sat in his highchair, his baby fingers squishing noodles against his mouth.

Halfway through dinner, Matt leaned on the table with his elbows and looked at our eldest. “Tea, Mama said you had a little temper tantrum today.”

She huffed and side-eyed me like I’d betrayed her. I raised my brows. “I don’t want a dog, Papa. Nikki wants a dog. And Nikki _always_ gets what she wants.”

Matt dropped his fork onto his plate and laced his fingers. “I know, Tea. But throwing a fit isn’t the way to get what you want.” He looked down the table at me and Nick. “Maybe we shouldn’t get the dog either. No pets at all.”

“No!” Nicole whined. Her blue eyes filled with tears as she looked at her sister. “Mattie! Papa says we can’t have a dog now!”

Lee looked up at Nick and grinned making little _woof_ noises. His father leaned down and bumped their noses together. “Dog says _woof_ ,” Nick replied.

Mattie heaved a sigh that was worthy of a desperately exhausted teenager. She looked from Matt to Nick and me and back again. Then she sank down in her chair and groaned. “I guess we can get a dog.”

***

After dinner, we went outside to the backyard and sat by the pool. Nick was dangling Lee over the water, letting him kick his toes in it. Matt sat on the diving board with Nicole and Mattie, talking quietly as he tried to solve the sibling rivalry that was springing up between them. I sat next to Nick, swishing my feet and ankles in the pool as I cradled RJ against my shoulder.

“Why didn’t she tell me, Nick?” I asked, my eyes still on Matt. He dipped his head to look them both in the eye. As I watched, he tapped each one of them gently in the chest and pointing from one to the other.

Nick rested his chin on the curve of my shoulder. “Because she wants to be strong like you.”

“I’m not strong,” I said, blinking back tears.

“There are four kids and two grown men who would say otherwise,” he replied softly. “You’re her hero, Sunshine. And I think she knew that you would raise hell at school if you found out.”

Before I could say anything, Matt came over, each of the girls holding one of his hands. “We’re going to go talk inside, okay, Mama?” He winked at me, his lips curving into a smile that brightened his cheeks.

I nodded as he walked by with them toward his house. When they’d passed behind, I grinned at Nick. “It’s in the kitchen,” I whispered, standing up. Nick joined, tossing Lee over his shoulder until he laughed.

The squealing began before we even got the door open. When we turned the corner to Matt’s kitchen, the girls were already in the floor rolling around with the dog who was desperately excited to have playmates. Mattie got a very sloppy dog kiss on the cheek and grinned.

“Look, Mama! Look, Dad… he’s got blue eyes like us!” Mattie sounded as if she’d gotten over her sudden hatred of dogs.

Nick put Lee down on the other side of the baby gate and looked up at his brother, the two of them having one of those conversations without words. He dropped a kiss to my forehead before slipping down the hallway to Mattie’s room.

“What are we going to name him?” Matt asked, crouching down and rubbing the dog on the belly.

The girls conferred, quickly agreeing that he looked like cookies and cream. Nicole leaned in and put her hand against Mattie’s ear, whispering gleefully. Mattie nodded, flashing a smile just like her Papa’s.

“Oreo,” she said, looking back at her sister who nodded enthusiastically. “Oreo.”

Matt looked up at me, his dark eyes beautifully bright, and my heart thudded against my ribs. RJ snuggled against my chest. Nick came down the hall with a hamster cage in each hand. He sat them on the floor and leaned against the doorframe.

“My love,” Nick said, rapping his knuckles on the wall. Oreo yipped at the sound, and followed behind as Mattie crossed over to the gate. He lifted her over and crouched in front of her, taking both of her hands in his. “You know that Papa and I love you very much, right?”

She nodded, confusion settling on her brow. I stroked her hair back off her face. Nick smiled. “And you know sometimes Papa and I do stupid things that make Mama wonder why she married us?”

Our daughter grinned and nodded more enthusiastically. I glanced over at Matt, who was laughing and trying to figure out if Oreo knew how to do any tricks. “All the time,” Mattie said, looking up at me. I nodded back.

“Well, we did it again today. But we’ve talked to Mama, and she says that you can have them.” He glanced up at me, something beautifully soft in his eyes. “Because you’re the strongest little girl in the whole world. Just like your mom.”

He reached back with both hands and pulled the cages forward. She looked at them for a moment before bursting into tears. But instead of reaching for Nick, she turned and buried her face in my shirt, arms thrown tight around my waist. I settled my hand on the back of her head and leaned down, kissing her hair. “I love you, Mattie. So very, very much.”

Mattie squeezed me hard before turning toward her Dad, wiping her eyes. She knelt down between the cages and wiggled her fingers at them. They were quickly dubbed Bandit and Ranger Jackson. Surprisingly, Nicole was too happy with Oreo to want a second dog to match.

Meet Oreo, Bandit, and Ranger


End file.
